Category Archives: Keyword Research Software

Lead Generation Plan

So I figured before I started to get into what I am doing it might be a good idea to tell you what I am doing first. As I mentioned I have a mentor and am going to build my list. That is not the whole story though. I actually have a couple of teachers that I am working with. Once I have mastered the techniques they are sharing I will build my expertise in other areas.

The idea is that as my knowledge grows so will this site. So over the next few weeks I will be adding tutorials on the strategies I am using but first things first.

List Building 101

Before you can begin to build a list of subscribers you need to lay a solid foundation. That is precisely what I am doing over the next few days. My time is somewhat limited so it could take a little longer. Frankly this part is so important that if it takes me a bit to get it right then so be it. I am talking about Niche Selection and Keyword research.

Personally when I do Niche Selection I try to stick with something I have interest in. Especially in the beginning you want to be in a niche that will keep your attention as a motivator to keep moving forward.

Let me give you an example of what I mean. The reason this blog has come about is because I was looking for a particular type of site and as far as I can see it does not exist. I realized if I want to connect with the types of individuals I am seeking then I will have to find and meet them myself. This is how I came to the conclusion that I need to build my own list and this blog.

Now admittedly the niche is highly competitive and so is the keyword competition but I don’t mind. My goal is longer term and I am looking to build an authority site. Having said that, using this site as a benchmark should prove interesting in that as competitive as these keywords are…if I can get this site ranked then I can rank anything.

Prudence would suggest that you start with something less competitive…I just am not prudent…lol.

Keyword Research and Keyword Tools

So once you have picked your niche it is time to do some keyword research. Here you have many options to choose from and the good news is many of them are free. The first place I typically start my research is the Google Keywords Tool. When I search with this tool I always make sure that I do a broad search for the keyword and also an exact match search for the keyword. I will be adding a video for this in the Niche Selection / Keyword Tools section of the site so stay tuned.

The Google Keyword Tool for all its flaws has some great information but you have to know what you are looking at. The metrics I want to see are obviously search volume but also the search trend (is it rising or falling?) and CPC (cost per slick). Discovering the trend of a search can tell you whether you are in a rising niche or falling niche. Having the CPC gives you an idea of the value of a keyword for monetization purposes. These are the positives of Google Keyword Tool.

There are some negatives. The largest of which, in my opinion, is that the numbers Google shows are not always accurate. That being said…this is why we always cross check the results with some other free tools. One I really like is Traffic Travis. But before we talk about that I need to throw something at you before I forget.

*Hint –if you do a Google search for the Keywords you have chosen you will see at the bottom of the page several additional search options that Google gives you. These are great for secondary keywords for your site.

Okay back to Traffic Travis. In its most primitive form, the free version, this is still quite an impressive tool. For the purposes of this post though we only need to focus on the Keyword Research Tool that is part of the basic setup. You can really get a ton of information with the free version. Things like total search volume etc…but you can also check out the top twenty sites for a particular keyword and see how many links they have, what is their pagerank etc…with the Pro Version you get even more. You can literally spy on your competition and mirror what they do to beat them out for the top spots in the search engines.

Anyway the most important thing is that you will either get confirmation of what Google has already told you or you will not. Oh and Traffic Travis will also tell you how hard it will be to rank for a certain keyword.

Another tool I have used, again the free version, is Wordtracker. It is also a pretty neat tool that will give some great insights into the relevancy of a keyword.

Oh and before I forget this too…I just discovered this keyword tool that is attached to YouTube. Now I have not done much with video yet but I also will have to move in that direction as much of what I want to show you will be “over my shoulder” stuff. I will admit right now that I am not close to expert in this so I will be figuring out Camtasia on the fly. But again, once I know it I will have another tool in my belt and so will this site. Anyway I saved the link to my desktop and will definitely look much deeper into this tool. If anyone gets there first or has insight into the YouTube Keyword Tool please feel free to comment.

This is essentially the manual version of Keyword Research. I will save the “how to’s” for the video’s. There is another way to go and that is to automate the process. As I mentioned before Traffic Travis has a Pro Version and it does all the research and numbers crunching for you but there is also another tool I want to mention. It is called Keyword Canine. I will tell you straight up this software is not cheap but it will literally save you hours every time you use it and that starts to add up quick.

I want to throw something out real quick in the interest of being honest with you. Over the last couple of years people advised me to set myself up for success. I understood this from the standpoint of a brick and mortar business but for some reason I felt like I did not have to invest much to make a ton of money online. This is not entirely true. To be sure the investment required to start an online venture is typically much lass than an offline business but still it is not free. I suspect I would have earned much more money over the last two years had I set myself up properly from the start.

I guess what I am saying is that while the links to various tools I use are affiliate links they are also tools I use. The links are there not just to sell you something…they are there because I am using these tools and they work. As always do your own research but my intent is to save you some time that I already spent and get you on track to making a living online.

The bottom line is this…as it was explained to me…niche selection and good keyword research are essential. Screw these up and your best case is you work ten times harder than you have to and your worst case is you fail completely. I can attest to the truth of this based on my past experience. So if you want to waste two years ignore this crucial step or decide it is not worth the investment to arm yourself with the proper tools but be warned that it most likely will end in frustration as did my first experience.

As I said I will be putting together a series of video’s on this material so stay tuned and in the meantime feel free to leave your comments and suggestions. I am going to try to keep this in order but sometimes I get off track and there is a lot of information to disseminate.